Growing up, Rhea Patel always loved information technology, but a visit to Syracuse University in 2016 to take a two-week summer college coding class cemented her path forward.
“It was taught by Professor Mike Fudge, and I learned about all of the opportunities Syracuse and the iSchool had to offer,” she said. “When I was accepted in March of 2017, there was no doubt that I would be matriculating.”
Patel graduated Magna Cum Laude from Syracuse’s School of Information Studies in 2021 with a bachelor of science degree in information management and technology and certificate of advanced study in information security management.
Now living in New York City, Patel works as a technical project manager at RSM, a global tax, audit and consulting firm. She works in consulting in the Managed, Cloud and Infrastructure Service line and is a member of the Client Experience Office team.
“The bulk of the work I do is in IT Transformation utilizing the Microsoft stack. We implement MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication), set up SharePoint Intranets, and migrate mail, to name a few,” she said. “It is most rewarding to oversee a project where a client is in need of modernization.”
In her role, Patel takes companies’ old technical solutions that are no longer working and moves everything to Microsoft. She manages anywhere from 16 to 20 projects at any given time and is mostly focused on Zero Trust Implementations, Firewall/Network Implementations, Cloud to Cloud Migrations and M365 Implementations.
“Clients are really grateful to be in a seamless environment where everything is more secure,” Patel said. “This is meaningful to me because a lot of the work we do at RSM is in the middle market. Helping smaller to medium-sized companies revolutionize the way their everyday tools work is why we do what we do.”
While she mostly works with the financial services industry, Patel would eventually like to work with other industries that fascinate her as well, such as fashion, beauty, sports and music. She is also open to traveling more.
“I would love to use my love for technology and passion for these industries and see what I can do to facilitate IT transformation for companies whose products I am passionate about,” she said. “I love living in New York and plan to stay here for a long time. However, I enjoy traveling and immersing myself in new cultures. If the opportunity presented itself to live and work in a new state or country, I wouldn’t be opposed!”
No matter what industry she works with, Patel credits Syracuse for helping jump start her career in the field of technology.
“The iSchool brings in companies and alumni to talk about their experiences, and it is a great way to make connections. I used to attend Christopher Perello’s career fair readiness classes, and they made such a difference,” she said. “iSchool career services is ultimately what helped me land my job. Syracuse has helped me prepare for my career in more ways than I knew could be possible. The coursework, the programming, the professors and the career services are all top-notch.”